Born: December 24, 1943 in Darmstadt
Died: June 14, 2003 in San Sebastián

Self-taught on the guitar since the late 1950s, Volker Kriegel soon formed a jazz trio with which he won the prize for best guitarist at the Düsseldorf Amateur Jazz Festival in 1963 and in the following years.

In 1968, he released his first LP "With A Little Help From My Friends" on Liberty, which was followed by a further 14 records under his own name until 1989. The most successful of these was probably the double LP "Inside: Missing Link", recorded in 1972, whose music was presented at the German Jazz Festival in Frankfurt am Main in the fall of the same year.

With the "Dave Pike Set", to which he belonged from 1968 to 1973, he recorded 6 LPs for MPS. He also recorded with Ingfried Hoffmann, Emil Mangelsdorff's "Swinging Oil Drops" (as early as 1967), Klaus Doldinger, Don "Sugarcane" Harris, Rolf and Joachim Kühn and Curt Cress.

Since 1977, he has played with the "United Jazz and Rock Ensemble", whose productions have been released on the label "Mood Records", which he co-founded. He formed his own groups "Spectrum" and later "Mild Maniac Orchestra" from time to time for tours from the Wiesbaden base.

In later years, he devoted himself more to his second career as a storyteller, translator, cartoonist and illustrator. His picture stories "Der Rock'n'Roll-König" and "Erwin mit der Tröte" (Erwin with the horn) were based on his experiences as a musician. The books he translated from English into German include the Miles Davis biography by fellow musician Ian Carr and Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", which he also illustrated.

In 1979, he created the animated cartoon "The Counterfeiter" in London. He also wrote for radio and television. In 2005, the Wilhelm Busch Museum in Hanover acquired Kriegel's graphic estate, which contains around 730 drawings.

Volker Kriegel lived in Wiesbaden from 1953, interrupted by his time as a student between 1965 and 1970, which he spent in Frankfurt am Main. He is buried in the North Cemetery.